Aterna.

It was a strange place. Madeline had been to many places and at the first glance, this backwater plane did not attract much attention. When she reincarnated here, she did not think that this place was all that interesting. The plane was weak and small, an ordinary secondary plane. But as she spent more time, she found many remarkable points. First, there were many races. Normal planes, even primary or super-planes would not have this high number of races. The evolution of races was a natural process that occurred in small or large worlds. Through the passage of time, the environment and laws would interact with living beings developing them into different races. As new races emerged in a world, the world-will would record the race in its memory. With time, the world-will would keep on managing the birth-rates of different races to maintain the ecology of the world. Thus, even if some races went extinct, the world-will could bring them back depending on the requirements of ecology. But for this to happen, the world-will needs to have a record of that race. A race that has not evolved in the world can't be created. But according to this plane's history, the several hundred new intelligent races all proliferated suddenly a hundred thousand years ago. This meant that the plane-will had the records of these races. But this was unreasonable as the lifetime of a secondary-plane was not sufficient to evolve so many different intelligent races. Only true-worlds had the lifespan needed for that. While the local powers had yet to notice this fact due to the war with devils, once this came to light, the importance of this place was bound to increase.

Secondly, the plane seemed to be oddly blessed with talents. She had seen many talents here, much more than any other plane she had visited in her tens of reincarnations. The natives of the plane were not strong but they showed great potential. She had seen many people here with the potential to reach upper-ascendant realm. She had seen the leaders of werebeasts, the imperial teacher and many others who had very stable and powerful mindsets. If they were given enough resources to grow, they had a small possibility of reaching upper-ascendance.

The greatest mark of a cultivator was not their talent, bloodline or strength, but it was their mindset. Cultivation in the mortal stage was fairly easy. As long as one had resources, one would have some success. But things were different for ascendants. Initially, one might feel that lower-ascendants had it easy. After all, as long as one had powerful elixirs, wisdom beads or cultivation rooms, one could progress very fast. But the importance of foundation was much more than what general lower-ascendant cultivators understood. The path of upper-ascendance was gruesome, filled with hazards and much harder than scaling the tallest mountains. It was not unusual for someone to spend hundreds of years constantly in cultivation and still not make any progress. Even the so-called heaven-defying geniuses would cry tears of blood when they reached this stage. Countless upper-ascendants would go through recultivation multiple times to mend their foundations. To progress against such odds and reach the realm of divinity required persistence and a mindset as tough as divine metals. The Samsara sect spent a huge amount of resources for their geniuses to go through cycles of samsara to toughen up their mindset. But the cultivators of this plane were already tough in their spirit. This amazed Madeline a lot.

After settling down in this reincarnation, she decided to take part in the war. Devils were a hated bunch in the heaven-realm as well. Being a part of the orthodox faction, she was naturally opposed to the devils. But the heaven-realm was the territory of His Excellency Heaven-Emperor. There were many Honored Gods and Dao Gods present. As a result, the influence of devils was very low and their activities were usually carried hidden from the public eye. Here, the devils even dared to form an army and fight the orthodox sects. This was something unimaginable in the heaven-realm. The very idea of these despicable devils wreaking havoc on innocents filled her with rage.

After she joined the war, she applied to be assigned to a team. She was a visitor here and was not familiar with the territory and terrain. It was reasonable to do a few missions with the natives first before going off on her own. Currently, most of her strength was sealed and she was only in the demi-ascendant realm. Alas, even if her strength was to be completely unsealed, she would not be able to change the course of this war.

As she reached the meeting point, she took a look at the three natives she was supposed to work with.

One of them is quite good but the other two are simply trash. Hmm, I will try to save the other guy to the best of my abilities.

As she neared the three people, one of them asked, "Hey lady, are you by chance our team-mate? We are team #21."

"Yes. I have been assigned to team #21."

"Oh! Great! To think that such a beauty would accompany us in battle. Can you please tell us your name? I am Samuel Joss, the scion of a local high-noble family. You seem to be a foreigner. Did you also come from the Divine Sea Sect?"

"Yes. I am Madeline. Nice to meet you, Samuel."

"Very good, since you are new to the place, you can count on me. Not to brag but I am an important person, so you don't have to worry about your safety if you follow me. While it might seem like I am alone, I have many shadow warriors protecting me at all times. By the way, this is my bosom-buddy Azeer Zenid. He is also similarly a scion of a high-noble family. Also, the silent guy is called Mark Gregory, the heir to a small noble family. We have known each other for all our lives, so why don't you tell us more about yourself? Where are you from?"

"Yes, I am from the Divine Sea Sect. I practice the laws of life and death. I have a few law-based techniques that are attack-based, most of them are mainly used for buffing and debuffing. This is the direction I have focussed on in my cultivation."

"Yeah, that's all fine but what about your likes and dislikes? Do you have a partner? If you are free, we can ditch the mission and enjoy ourselves. This humble place might not have much to offer but it is a unique place and you can have many unique experiences if you want.", said Samuel with a perverted smile.

Trash!

Madeline was already regretting her decision of joining a team-mission. Looks like her luck was truly rotten to get this guy as a teammate. Before she could reprimand him, the silent guy, Mark said, "Samuel, if you are not serious about the mission, you can leave right now. I would rather have weaker teammates than ones who are careless."

"Don't take all this too seriously, Mark. I know that you have been serious since childhood but in this war can we do anything? All the missions and effort is nothing but child's play in the eyes of the main army. Even if we sacrifice ourselves, nothing will change. If the sky falls, the tall ones will catch it first. We don't have to bother too much. Let's just gain some experience of battling the devils and make a political statement for the masses.", Azeer who had been silent till now spoke nonchalantly.

These two guys are hopeless! thought Madeline. Just then, their last member arrived. She turned to look at him and soon she was bewildered by his expression. The guy was showing such passion on his face while looking at her that it completely creeped her out. Another pervert!

But before she could say anything, the other party noticed her gaze and composed himself. He walked over.

"Hello Everyone. I am Mark Strong, an outer disciple of Divine Sea Sect. I have come to join the war and earn contribution points. I am looking forward to working with you all. I am a demi-ascendant and I practise the laws of life and death. I am specialized in close combat but I don't have any good long-range spells. I can take the place as the main damage dealer."

"Tch! Another one with life and death laws. Earlier, I thought it was a big deal, grand laws and whatnot. But it seems it is not that big an achievement.", said Samuel.

The situation seemed to freeze. Madeline could not understand why this guy would say something like this. She practised life and death laws because she was from Samsara Sect. But in so many reincarnations, she had never met anyone else enlightened in the same laws. The concept of Samsara required a deep understanding of life and death. There were some independent cultivators who gained some enlightenment in life and death, but it was very rare outside the Samsara Sect. As far as she knew, only her Samsara Sect had the legacy of life and death in the Heaven-Empire. It was needless to point out the rarity of people who cultivated life and death law.

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Mark Strong said, "Oh, you must be referring to the world-toppling, heaven-shaking, prince of commoners, the legendary Michael Rageberg! He is the main reason I came here, to his home plane. He is truly my idol! I have heard that he is an incredible person, and has unified this plane. He even became a core-disciple at the Divine Sea Sect at a very young age and has boundless talents and influence. I was so happy when I found that I was practising the same laws as such a genius! Do you all know him as well? Are you his fan as well?"

The mood suddenly became awkward. Azeer smiled wryly while Mark Gregory's lips were twitching as he tried to stifle his laughter. Samuel's face seemed to have turned red but he was unable to say anything. Madeline too was speechless after looking at this scene. She knew about Michael Rageberg as well. It was impossible not to know him Aterna. The guy was a legend here. From what she knew, he was truly talented, even by the standards of Heaven-Empire. It was likely that he would shine in the selection battles. But the guy was not as exaggerated as this Mark Strong was saying. Even if he was talented, he was still below divine geniuses. Besides, many could match his calibre in the Heaven-realm. Even the Divine Sea Sect had geniuses of the same level.

Samuel, on the other hand, was truly trying to suppress his rage. Many years ago, he along with Azeer and Mark was considered the greatest geniuses of the human race in the kingdom only to be completely suppressed by Michael. After Michael made his debut, he was so blinding that no one paid any attention to these three. Samuel, who had been treated as a chosen before did not take this well. Besides, the Joss family had supported the Atrexia family in the struggle for the throne. As a result, their standing had dropped and now, while they were still a high-noble family, they were incomparable to Zenids and Millers. Samuel truly hated Michael. But, this plane was Michael's territory and he couldn't even criticise the emperor lest he and his family face a calamity. Given the question addressed to him, he could only swallow his pride and say, "Of course, Lord Michael is the sun of Aterna. How can I not be a fan?"

Afterwards, Samuel did not seem too interested in talking and calm returned to the group. After the group acquainted themselves with each other's skills, they set out in a crystal ship towards the nearest teleportation anchor.

Madeline had initially felt that there was no hope with the group but she later found herself corrected. Mark Strong, who she had initially assumed trash like Samuel was actually quite skilled. Others might not have noticed but he was a celestial. Being a celestial herself, she could feel the aura of the celestial path from him. Celestials were quite common in the Samsara Sect but still, any celestial was considered a talent. What others did not know here was that celestials found it much easier to advance in upper-ascendance than non-celestials. After all, as long as they made progress in the celestial path, that progress would be tripled. The effect of this was not well pronounced before but as one started building their own system, celestials truly had a huge advantage. This guy also had a very formidable temperament. While he was a bit eccentric, he was genuinely talented. Also, he practised life and death laws, and his attainment was not low. In fact, he could perhaps move to ascendance realm anytime he wanted. The fact that he had not done so meant that his ambitions were high and his mindset was strong. Thus she was quite favourably disposed towards him.

During their journey, she helped him out with his understanding of laws. His attainment was high but he did not have any law-based abilities. Looking at his talent, she decided to teach him a few abilities around the laws of life and death. She was not only helping a talented cultivator, she was also testing him. If this guy was truly gifted, she was considering taking him as a disciple of her sect.

"Your understanding of laws themselves is high but there is no point to comprehension that doesn't increase your strength. Hitting enemies with death law manifestation is simply stupid. The effect will be so weak that it won't even act as a debuff. The whole point of practising laws is not to gather law-marks but to generate the strength of laws. You must develop or learn celestial arts, martial arts, sword arts or arts of any other path that you intend to cultivate that are based on the laws of life and death and can show the true strength of laws. This is the essence of law-cultivation. Of course, things will become more complicated as your cultivation increases but the essence will remain the same. The use of law marks is not in increasing the sturdiness of your body but to amplify the power of your law-based arts. If you have a sword art based on the law of life and death, then the power of that sword art when used by a peak-ascendant will be a 1000 times yours. This is not because they have a greater understanding of the laws but simply because they have many law-marks. Do you understand it now?"

"Yes, teacher."

"Very good. I know that finding arts compatible with your laws is hard, especially for life and death laws. Creating such arts is a very long journey. Of course, if you manage to create your own arts, it will be very helpful in your future cultivation. But not everyone is that talented. I will teach you some simple arts so that you can understand the concept. If you manage to master them, I will teach you better ones."

"Yes, thank you, Madeline, you truly are my lucky star. What do you say, we ditch the missions and do a one-on-one training session?"

"Idiot, these things can't be taught. You need to practise relentlessly and master these techniques. And the best place to practise is battles. Okay, now pay attention, this art is called one-layer life seal. You use the life energy from the surroundings and form this ancient seal. You need to exercise precise control for this. Once you create the seal, you need to destabilise the energy. The shape has been calculated in such a way that the energy will be stacked together imploding with great might. Like this."

The life seal flew out from her hands and struck a nearby forest. With a huge explosion, all trees in the radius of a kilometre were turned into dust. The blast was like a full-powered attack from a rank-1 ascendant.

She could see Mark's eyes widening in shock and a look of desire appear in his eyes. Madeline felt good after seeing his reaction for some reason. Mark immediately started to try out the method of constructing the life seal. After failing a few times, he tried even harder. He seemed to be struggling quite a bit. But Madeline was not discouraged. This was someone who had not trained any law-based arts till now, so it made sense that he would face difficulties. Unknown to her, Mark was thinking:

Damn it! I can't use the perfect-persona blessing of the main body or else this would have been a piece of cake. I need to impress her, but I keep failing! If this continues, I will make a fool out of myself. Come on! Why is the law energy this disobedient? This fucker never misbehaves when I try with my main body. Am I really trash without the perfect persona blessing? How infuriating!! Form! Form! Motherf***er form for me!

Alas, the seal blew up in his face and broke a few teeth. Mark seemed completely shocked missing a few teeth. Looking at his stupefied face, Madeline could not resist laughing hard.

Bastard! I don't believe that I can't form this seal!

Regrowing his teeth, he started trying to form the seal again.

Looking over at the lovely atmosphere created by these two, Samuel incessantly complained, "Hmph! What's so great about the law of life and death? That girl is anyway not that beautiful. After all, Ashley is even more beautiful and sexy." But as he remembered that Ashley was already Michael's wife, Samuel's mood became even worse.

Azeer just smiled wryly at Samuel. He was not bothered by these two foreigners. Who cared even if these two ended up together? He was just content with what he had. Mark Gregory was simply meditating in the corner.

After a few days, the team reached the first teleportation anchor. The battle was intense but not too hard for them. Mark Strong and Madeline were both celestials making them quite powerful. Mark Gregory was skilled in long-distance attack spells and scouting, and he did his job seriously. Azeer was mostly defending himself while Samuel was killing the devils recklessly venting out his frustrations. Anytime he was about to be fatally wounded, shadows would emerge to take the attacks. These were the shadow-warriors of the Joss family. Their job was to simply trade their life for Samuel.

Soon, the team successfully destroyed their first target. Afterwards, they returned to the command centre for a few days before being deployed to another teleportation anchor.

Soon, they formed a decent understand between themselves. Madeline and Mark Strong were one team. They would attack and retreat together most of the times. Even when they were not in battles, they were mostly together, with Madeline teaching and Mark learning. Soon, Mark showed good progress with his training with his relentless practice. As a result, their teamwork and combat methods became more and more intertwined. Mark Gregory was the long-range supporter of the group and he did his job perfectly. Azeer generally secured the rear, defending their crystal ship and retreat route. Samuel would simply kill as he pleased generally attracting the enemies' attention to himself.

Days passed and the group managed to gain a reputation among the native forces. Especially, Mark Strong and Madeline, who were widely believed to be a couple. Michael also did not try to correct these misunderstandings.

As days passed, an entire year went by without any problems. In this year, team #21 destroyed tens of teleportation anchors. But it is only to one point when everything goes well. It is said that anything that could go wrong, would go wrong. The same was true for the undefeated win streak of team #21 as well.